NOT Wyre Way in sections (2)

Sunday morning and I am breakfasting as usual, but having some difficulty in pouring tea from the teapot, and looking out of the window at a courtesy car loaned by my Skoda dealership.

Saturday was not good.

Full of noble intentions despite a dodgy forecast I set off early to walk what would have been the title here but without the first word.

Yeti, occasionally gives me palpitations by displaying one of its many warning lights, but usually that has been some triviality: coolant level low, or a blown bulb etc.

In buoyant mood, cruising the M6 south of Lancaster,  with coffee flask and nibbles stowed in the rucksack, I was in good time and looking forward to my twelve mile circular walk. Then the orange light that looks like a coil of wire started flashing. That light normally comes on, without flashing, at startup indicating warming up of the glow plugs, then disappears when that job is completed.

Power dropped off; we had gone into what the manual joyfully calls "limp mode". I motored on to the south Lancaster exit and looked at the manual - by now there was another warning light: a pictogram of a car engine. Pessimistically,  "perhaps I am going to need a new engine?"

Pessimistically again, "I bet the service department of my Skoda dealers in Morecambe isn't open on Saturday morning."  It was 9.15. I phoned. Without hesitation, "bring it in as soon as you can."  Twenty minutes later I was fantasising over a top of the range, four wheel drive Skoda Octavia Estate Car in the showroom whilst drinking a cup of 9.5 out of 10 coffee. "This is going to cost." 

They have an attractive and knowledgeable young lady who fronts up the service department, a masterstroke designed to take the sting out of bad news about expensive replacement parts. A valve in the exhaust system had broken. That was explained in some detail that I can't now remember, but it seems that this part is susceptible to carbon build up leading to its failure (Skoda owners beware!) Replacement cost will be circa £200 plus fitting. They will have the part on Monday or Tuesday. Without further formalities, not even a signature, I was given a Skoda Rapide courtesy car to drive home in - I know all this is going to cost, but such good service from the dealership is priceless.

Things were looking up.

By now it was too late to return to my walk. I decided on a shorter foray nearer home after a bit of shopping at Aldi, Carnforth. Rain had continued beyond the forecast.

At Aldi I marched off from parking to the store still wearing my Crocs -  I prefer them for driving - they allow me to go into cruise control and remove my right foot from the accelerator to stretch my leg and ease my dodgy knee.

The entrance to Aldi is paved with polished ceramic tiles, now wet with the rain. Within a nano-second I was horizontal in the air, then painfully on my back. Much as I wanted to sort myself out I was immediately surrounded by well meaning helpers including an off duty nurse who was taking my pulse. They bundled me into the store, summoned the first-aider who brought a chair. I then saw she had her mobile to hand and it took forcible, and unintentionally ungrateful words from me to stop her calling an ambulance.

My brow was dripping with sweat and I did feel groggy. I had taken the major impact on the upper part of my back with a secondary knock to the back of my head and I had also badly sprained my right thumb and a finger on my left hand.

Eventually I recovered enough to do my shop and drive home.

Thankfully parking on my drive, and looking forward to recumbent recuperation, I realised that in transferring my belongings from Yeti to Rapide I had left my house keys behind. Thankfully daughter Jill has spares and lives in Arnside and the day was saved.

The sprained digits are proving troublesome - last night I had to use some ingenuity to get the cork out of a bottle, but needs must...

This morning I feel fine, but perhaps fortuitously the forecast is bad enough to stop me from charging off again - another day's rest is perhaps a good thing.